The Big 0-4

Lauren's birthday is the day after my dad's, so for 4 years my dad has had his birthday party rolled together with a little girl--he probably doesn't mind....and these birthdays always get celebrated right at Fathers' Day and my parents' anniversary...it's usually a busy weekend. Lauren turned 4 on the 18th--hard to believe. It's getting hard to celebrate a birthday the weekend before or after, and explain to a little child that it's not actually her birthday, but that were going to have a party with some presents and cake...oh well. Here we are on Fathers' Day at our multi-event celebration.


We only gave her a couple of things on Sunday, but she was plenty spoiled by her grandparents and uncle. We held out most of our stuff for Wednesday so that her actual birthday would mean something.

She also had a little party at her preschool the day of her birthday...I was (and still am) right in the middle of packing and moving, so "home-made" wasn't going to happen...Kate and I stopped at our favorite donut shop, and for $1.50 Lauren and her classmates got a donut hole cake with some confetti sprinkles thrown over the top...add some milk, strawberries and Chex mix, and there she had an instant preschool party. Kate LOVES going to Lauren's school...she pulled a chair right up to the table and was just one of the big kids...

I let her open 1 present the morning of her birthday...just so she understood "today's THE DAY!"
That night she invited a friend and we had dinner and games at Chuck E. Cheese (by far, the worst pizza ever made...no joke, but fun for the kids). We bought way too many tokens, but Lauren, Kate and Mia had fun popping them in whatever game they walked by...
Mia couldn't get enough of Chuck E. Cheese and kept following him and touching his clothes as he was trying to walk away...


This was quite the sight--3 little girls "playing" skeeball...watch out!!! They were hucking the balls at the holes...they kept throwing tokens in because they loved watching the tickets come out at the end...this was my favorite picture...guess you had to be there...it really was funny (and slightly dangerous to all present!)
Happy Big 4 Lauren! We love you! (Note to my mother-in-law...yes that yellow dress/shirt that Lauren is wearing is the same yellow 2T dress you sent to Kate just days before...Lauren hijacked it and insisted she wear it...I insisted that she then had to wear shorts underneath...it'll be well used--thanks!)